Dana Gas receives $80 mln from Iraq's Kurdistan region
DUBAI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas said on Wednesday it had received $80 million from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, which for over a decade has sometimes struggled to make payments on time.
Pearl Petroleum, a consortium majority-owned by Dana, "recently" received $101 million from the KRG "despite the ongoing challenges within Iraq and is in ongoing discussions with the KRG to settle outstanding receivables as soon as possible," Dana Gas said in a statement on its first-half results.
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Turkey halted Iraq's 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Dana Gas also received $26 million in payments from Egypt, where its only other operations are, it said.
The firm was owed $97 million in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and $41 million in Egypt at the end of June.
Dana Gas reported a 25% drop in first-half net profit to 304 million dirhams ($83 million) on the back of softer oil prices and discounts on condensate sales in the KRI, where Dana "began to sell to third party local buyers as other companies shut down production."
"To counter the downturn in energy prices, the Company has strengthened its focus on maintaining production and lowering costs, while working with partner governments in Egypt and the KRI to settle outstanding payments," Dana Gas CEO Patrick Allman-Ward said in the statement.
The company's overall production declined by 2% to 59,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half from a year earlier, with a 12% decline in Egyptian production outweighing a 5% rise in the KRI. The drop in Egypt was due to natural field declines.
($1 = 3.6726 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Yousef Saba Editing by Mark Potter)